Our Milk

Fresh milk from our farms is brought to the dairy and poured into a large cheese vat. It takes approximately a gallon of milk to make one pound of Cheddar. A special starter culture is added and the milk is stirred and slowly warmed to around 35 degrees centigrade. Once it reaches a certain level of acidity a rennet is added that, over a period of approximately 45 minutes, causes the milk to set into a jelly-like coagulum. This is like a huge junket. Cheesemaking can then begin once the curd has a ‘clean break’ and is fully separated from the liquid whey.